Government breaks promise on Right to Buy replacements

Last year, former housing minister Gavin Barwell said Right to Buy was “only politically justifiable” if the government was meeting its housing pledge.

In 2012, David Cameron raised Right to Buy discounts to £75,000 a home, with this figure increased to £100,000 in London a year later. It has continued to rise with inflation.

The government promised a replacement for each additional home sold as a result of these increased discounts would be started on-site within three years of the sale.

To calculate this, it uses an estimated figure for sales had the discounts not increased.

Relatively low sales in the early months since the introduction of the policy had meant it had met this pledge until the latest statistics, released today.

Inside Housing revealed in 2016 that the government was on course to break the pledge.

Current trends suggest the gap will widen during the coming quarters. At the last update to the statistics in January, it was saved from breaking the pledge by only four homes.

Councils have warned the government policy hobbles their attempts to replace homes through restrictive rules on use of the funding.

These demand that receipts only fund 30% of the cost of development and cannot be mixed with grant funding from other sources.

The Treasury also takes a significant slice of the funding – £800m at this point last year – and councils also use cash for debt repayment, reducing the money available for replacement.

Inside Housing revealed last year that only 48% of the replacement homes built or acquired are for social rent.

The latest figures showed 2,815 sales and 1,010 replacements were started for the three months between October and December last year.

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government has been contacted for comment.

A government statement is expected later today.